Description

CPU

Our CPU of choice for this budget is the Intel Pentium G4560. While it features only two cores, the G4560 also employs hyperthreading to help close the gap between it and a 4-core i5. Hyperthreading adds an additional logical core for each physical core, which is handy for streaming, video editing, and multi-tasking CPU-intensive tasks. The G4560 includes a stock cooler, so a 3rd-party cooler isn't necessary.

Motherboard

We're using a parametric filter to constantly select the best-priced motherboard while meeting selected criteria. In this case, we are filtering for B250 chipsets and 4 DDR4 DIMM slots for future expansion. The compatibility engine will filter out anything not compatible with the build. The motherboards are also capable of using the CPU's integrated GPU, in case you need to RMA your GPU or are waiting for a sale or upgrade.

Memory

A parametric filter is being applied to choose the best priced 2x4GB kit of memory within Intel's recommended specifications. With this selection, we have space on the motherboards for 2 more sticks of RAM, leaving room for future expansion.

Storage

We're also using a parametric filter to select the best priced SSD available that is at least 240GB. The SSD can be used for your OS and a handful of games. Additionally, we're using a parametric filter to select the best-priced 1TB drive. Everyone's needs are different, so feel free to increase capacities or remove a drive to fit yours.

GPU

We're going with a filter for the best-priced AMD Radeon RX 470. This will run modern games at 1080p quite well. If you'd like to squeeze a little more performance out of your build for more money, you can check out the Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB to see if their prices look appealing to you.

Case

The Deepcool TESSERACT is a mid tower case that can fit all of our components. It offers decent cable management, which can sometimes be a problem at our budget, and there's room to expand with hard drives or a solid state drive. It also has 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 port on the front panel. Cases tend to be highly personal choices, so make sure you browse our listed cases to see what suits you. There's a windowed version of the same case if you want to see your parts, and if you'd simply like a color change, there are black and red and white versions as well.

PSU

For the PSU, we're using a parametric selection of a few well-reviewed semi-modular and modular units, which are all rated for good power efficiency and can provide plenty of power for this build.

Comments
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Is there a special reason why the parametric filter for RAM includes 2133MHz? Both the CPU and the motherboard now support 2400MHz and from what I read the G4560 will run significantly better with 2400MHz. Since the price-difference is minimal, should't the lowest recommended RAM be 2400MHz?

I thought that too! I bought an 8gb stick of Avexir 2400MHz RAM for 50$ (which is only a few bucks cheaper , but more aesthetically-pleasing with its blue LEDs) a few months back but I haven't been able to pair it with the G4560 yet to test how speedy it is. Maybe it was just overlooked in this guide?

CS:GO, Lol overwatch etc. will all run at over 60fps at 1080p ultra with either cards but for battlefield 1 you might want the rx 470 unless you're ok with medium settings. I have this hardware (G4560 and RX 470) and skyrim runs locked at 60fps constantly (and I have over 20 mods, most of which are graphical, installed). I think fallout runs fairly similarly to skyrim so you should be good with an rx 470. A RX 460 would run skrim SE at ultra at around 45fps during dragon fight scenes and will stay around 60fps in less intense scenes/areas. I did look into getting a rx 460 before and if you can get one for under 100 £/$ that is a good value option but I would reccomend taking a look at a 1050ti, which would be good for high to ultra settings for all the games you play and you can sometimes see for 130 £/$.

I am looking to build my first PC and this build has been highly recommended. I want to know what kind of performance i can get expect to get out of world of Warcraft, league of legends and the newer Total War titles? I intend to run these games on low to medium settings.

WoW and LoL should both run at over 60fps at 1080p/Ultra. Total War however will be a lot slower due to the heavy CPU-load in those titles. It will be playable with reduced settings, but not with the same performance as the other games.

Total War: Warhammer you might be able to get by with high setting (not Ultra) but in huge battles you might have to reduce your settings. Total War: Attilla and Rome 2 you will be fine and if you face some issues its because those games were just poorly developed and has nothing to do with your computer. For me, Warhammer runs alot smoother on Ultra settings then does Attilla and Rome 2 (Rome 2 and Attilla are several years old and Warhammer just came out). WoW I haven't played in years but that's a really old game so I think you should able to play that in Max Settings, unless they significantly increased the graphics for that game . League you can easily run that at Max settings.

Moving forward that is getting less and less true though. Games are starting to want both, so it is better to set yourself up for an easier and more efficient upgrade path going forward. For the money the G4560 is incredible.

Great build, I think that for the money it would be worth the extra 1$ to get the RX 480 check newegg. For some reason partpicker does not show the best prices for the 480 but at this moment there is an msi 480 for 154$ with a rebate and a powercolor one for 160$ with a rebate. I think subbing those out for the 470 will make this build more impressive.

Very, wet behind the ears, newbie here...just registered a few minutes ago. I'm curious, is there room for a CD/DVD drive to pair with this and what would you suggest . Second, this will be my first build ever, so I'm starting with something smaller for my wife and kids to use in our home, but I'm hoping that this comes out as a good experience for a future, larger build for my office.

I'm a photographer and I notice most of the descriptions are geared towards gaming. Any chance of someone pointing out the build guides that represent the "Good, Better and Best" for Photoshop and potentially minimal video editing. We run Photoshop, Lightroom, and InDesign more than anything else. I'm teaching myself Premiere right now but I can't imagine I would ever create a video longer than five minutes.

Probably a troll, literally made his account on the 20th of February. Everything he's posted have been on this build.

Assuming you are NOT a troll, ever heard of DX12? Windows 10 only. It actually helps in some games, even in it's current state. And that state will only improve.

Also, Windows 10 is lighter than Windows 7, meaning more CPU is available for the games (If the game relies on CPU more than GPU), and consumes less graphical horses than Windows 7 (Aero is nice but still), which can only improve performance.
Please explain how Windows 7 is better for gaming.

"Probably a troll, literally made his account on the 20th of February. Everything he's posted have been on this build." So what your saying is anyone that makes there account on the 20th of feb and only comments on one build is automatically a troll (How do you even troll on this?)
Also I've never heard of DX12 as i am fairly new to custom pcs

I built one of these except used an ITX form factor. I play a lot of games and have built really high end gaming rigs. This is my favorite so far. Believe it or not it handles all the games i have thrown at it. (Counter strike source, Astroneer, Stranded Deep, Skyrim Remastered, Black ops 3, BF4. This thing runs smooth at 1080p high-ultra settings. Its my favorite because it didn't cost a lot and it games like a champ. Multi tasking is very easy although processor slows down when running more then 4 different programs. I usually have 4-6 chrome browsers up with a game running no problem at all. The 4560 Pentium is a wonderful inexpensive processor. The RX 470 is a nice inexpensive card although installing drivers and updating it was pain in the *** (on AMD's part) their software isn't the best. I built mine for around the same price but ended up spending $100 for windows 10, which is a common thing people leave out on these builds making them seem cheaper then they are. Id rather see a higher price tag with option to remove os then a lower one and being misled. Good build though sweet looking case and could have saved an extra $15 on power supply. corsair makes a 450w perfect for this setup.

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The sale of those keys violate Microsoft ToS, and the keys may be unexpectedly disabled. Recommending, suggesting, advising, encouraging, hinting, or in any way implying these keys as a solution or option is not allowed on this site.

Would this PC be good for games like GTA Online, Fallout 4, Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim (Each of these Bethesda games with mods running), CS GO, Titanfall 2, Overwatch, Mass Effect, and other multiplayer and single player games (definitely not COD)

A good amount of tech youtubers have done reviews of the G4560 and they have ran all of these games at 1080p with mid to high settings with averages above 60. Most were with the 1050 or 1060 though but those are quite comparable with the rx470 and 480.

Honestly, for this price range, this is as optimized a build as you're likely to get. If you're willing to wait until March, AMD's new Ryzen CPU's will come out and change the landscape however, allowing you to possibly fit in a real 4-core (not 2 with hyperthreading) into a build this price, and making Intel prices probably drop.

You can tweak every component in there for price/performance/looks/preference, but this is a solid recommendation. It's the right CPU, GPU, Power Supply, Ram, and Storage / HDD configuration, and they're all balanced to work together well.

Most experienced builders would make something very similar to this, in all honesty. A Pentium G4560 with an RX 470, an SSD + HDD is the optimal configuration in this price range. You could just get 1 SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) instead of 2 separate drives to save costs and get more speed than just an HDD by itself (although not as much as a real SSD) and gain a little bit of convenience by not having to manually move your library folders to the "D:" drive, but honestly, you can't go wrong with a build like this one.

This build is a very strong contender that's already better than the PS4 Pro, and should be able to run most AAA titles for years.

I wouldn't expect intel's mid level cpus to drop when Ryzens r7's cpus come out in a couple of days. Those cpus are marketed towards higher priced cpus, 300+, hes going to have to wait until the lower tier cpus come out later this year. r5s, or r3s to actually experience intel price drops. Mid level to low budget cpus don't really have any competition atm so they won't need to drop in prices just yet.

Wow the Pentium G4560 is as much of a game changer as I thought it'd be. With the new Ryzen 4-cores coming out with i5 performance for i3 prices, Intel i3's are in trouble. Being squeezed from below by Pentiums and above from AMD Zen.

the pentium g4560 is like an i3-6100. You could barely see the difference between an i3-6100 and pentium g4560 anyways.I say go for a pentium g4560. Also look into getting the rx 470 instead of the 1050 ti. A little more expensive but it's worth it.

I'm going to be building something very similar to this spec over the weekend. Only difference is my storage and GPU as I was given a donor 2GB 560Ti which helped keep my cost down! Also there's a couple points about the 2133MHz RAM used in the above build, I was able to add 8GB 2400 for not a lot more also leaving a second slot open for upgrades.

P.S. I already have 2x2TB WD Green Drives hence why that's on the list. Also my case came from Amazon and isn't in the PC Parts Picker Data Base. Looking forward to my first build!!
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/qCkY8K

Guys.. I havent messed with desktops since about 12 years ago when I was into audio production. Been looking at the Alienware ASM100 with the i3 - windows version. You can pick those up pretty cheap on ebay once in a while as low as $300 shipped.

I currently use an older elitebook 8460p laptop with an i5-2520m cpu with integrated graphics. Bought an asus rog laptop for around $1300 a couple months back but returned it as I started doing more research on desktops.

Would I be better off with something I can use right away like the alienware or is this build a better value?

never use on board graphics if you plan on playing games or doing any kind of editing. A gpu has 100s of cores made for rendering images and working on simple tasks with alot at atime, while a cpu has very few cores for working on very complicated tasks. Only use onboard graphics if you are trying to do like microsoft office products and browsing the web, and maybe a few small games like league of legends or minecraft.

One good thing to do is look up benchmarks by established tech sites (Google will be your friend) and see how cards compare in performance on different games that are relevant to you at resolutions that are relevant to you. You won't necessarily always find performance for your games, but getting a sense of how they do overall will help too. Make sure you post in our Part List Opinions Wanted or Create A Part List For Me subforums too.

This should do pretty well. 128gb SSD for Windows 10, 1tb HDD for everything else, an RX 470 should do very well on the games you mentioned (1080p Ultra ~50-60FPS at least), and the i5 should help with at least Total War, a VERY CPU intensive title.

Run this build through some other people on this website too though, they may have better ideas than I do. Good luck on whatever build you do settle on!

*NOTE: If you trust some other retailers more than I do, you can get better prices than these, probably below $600.

Short Version - At LEAST 60FPS minimum all the time with Ultra. Don't worry about not getting your magical 60FPS with this build. ;)

Long Version - I found a Battlefield 1 Maxed Out performance overview, with DirectX11 the RX 470 4gb got ~80.1 FPS average, and with DirectX12 the RX 470 got ~80.7 FPS average. They also show a customized Ultra, one that changes settings that gobble up FPS without much of a visual affect. Using this guide, you could get 100+ FPS easily at near-Ultra. More details HERE on what settings have the biggest performance hits vs visual affect.

If you REALLY need to cut down the price of the build below, you could take out the SSD and downgrade to the GTX 1050 from the RX470. This will cut down the quality you can ramp up too and still have 60FPS. But, that will cut the price down to ~$500 and will still be good at things OTHER than gaming. This is a PC after all.

Could someone help me out? I'm very new to PC gaming and I need help figuring out what is better than not besides price. Could someone give me a good $500 build for gaming? All I want to play is the total war series and possibly overwatch.

if you need to cut cost on this i would recommend dropping the ssd or the hard drive you can choose based on your needs but I would say this is a very good build for these titles. you have plenty of options to upgrade in the future as well. Although there are some upgrades i would recommend immediately like getting an rx480 and ram clocked at 2400

Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core, Radeon RX 480 4GB Red Dragon, TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower
Total: $519.24
This is my first $500 build but I'm not sure if I have done it well or right at all. Could someone look it over and let me know your opinions or if you even have a better build I'd much appreciated it.

These builds should include the price for an OS. Considering it's necessary, this build goes up to over 600 bucks, if you're getting the latest OS (Willy Wonka 10, jk WindowsLicker) which is 109$ OEM. ;-;

The sale of those keys violate Microsoft ToS, and the keys may be unexpectedly disabled. Recommending, suggesting, advising, encouraging, hinting, or in any way implying these keys as a solution or option is not allowed on this site.

The sale of those keys violate Microsoft ToS, and the keys may be unexpectedly disabled. Recommending, suggesting, advising, encouraging, hinting, or in any way implying these keys as a solution or option is not allowed on this site.

For battlefield, it depends on what CPU you have or will get, because with an AMD FX 8320 you will get about 57fps, but with an i7-6700k you will get about 84fps, with an i5-3570k you will get about 80fps, all with the RX 470, Overwatch is an easy game to run, so no issues there, in fact some of the GTX 10 series cards max out at about 240 fps, either due to the game engine not supporting 240Hz+ or there is a CPU bottleneck.

I can afford this, It looks nice but I don't know much about pc's but iv done a lot of research. I play games no bigger then rust, right now I run it on a 2010 mac :( on all low settings and I get 13 frames at best. would this be able to run it and at what settings. I play csgo too but I heard that takes nothing to run

this can play both of those games extremely well. You could get rid of the ssd if you had to. You could also get the RX470 if you've got a little extra. If you plan on playing rust the best you'll get is low or medium 60 fps (Just a estimate) You definatly want a better cpu for rust. CS will run very well though (Max 60+fps)

Alright. I am trying to build a budget budget budget gaming pc of max 700$ with peripherals like mouse keyboard and monitor. Now i was wondering if it would be worth spending the now 125$ more expensive rx480 for gaming. I am not planning on playing any heavy games whatsoever, but i am just scared of getting something which is of too low quiality. Also, Seeing as the processor in this build is 60$, would it be good enough for gaming? I have read most other comments which say that this build can easily run games, but i can't help feeling like a pentium processor is just too bad for my liking. I have no experience at all at building pc's so any help appreciated :). Also i would like to have many options for upgrading in the future.

Hi guys, I'm a total novice and don't know squat yet . .. might try my first gaming build, but leaning towards simply ordering a CyberPower in the $500 to $700 range for my first gaming system. Want to play Skyrim (Legendary Edition), AC Black Flag, and Dishonored, mainly.
The above "entry level" looks OK to me but have a few questions:

How would it fair for the a fore mentioned games?

Want an optical drive. I have a DVD-RAM ATA drive from my current HP 6005 Pro Desktop but looks like I might have problems going from win 7 to win 10. Why are so many systems without optical drives?

I am completely confused by SSD's. . . Can't you just have an internal 500GB SSD . . . Why would you need a conventional HD too if you really only need about 500GB's of storage? Also - Wouldn't you have disk management headaches in having to switch from one to the other in installing and/or accessing?

If you want an optical drive just make sure the case has a bay for it, more and more cases coming out don't have them anymore.

Mechanical HDDs are still unbeatable in price/GB, and I imagine most people don't need SSD speeds when accessing types of data that would be saved on one, like videos, pictures, etc... Win 10 makes it very easy to choose what drive you want new programs installed to and where to save your personal files and documents with a simple drop down menu for each in settings > storage.

For this build, I would swap out the SATA SSD, for a M.2 NVMe. I think it's a no brainier, prices are dropping, they are much faster, this board supports it, and it's something you will most likely end up doing eventually anyway.

I have no idea about that particular game, but this video shows what the Pentium G4560 + RX 470 can do with many of its contemporaries such as Battlefield 1, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Rise of the Tomb Raider and etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dichjs9HXTg

I build this computer (When the graphics card was MSI 470) and I've only played 2 games but on LoL i get anywhere from 150 fps to 300 max settings and on borderlands 2 I get 60 to 90 max settings I will try to remember to update once I play new games

Hi Everyone!
This is Sunny here. I am new to PC building and I do not have much technical knowledge of computers. I basically read up and watched some videos on the internet and tried to build a gaming setup. Click on the link below to view the list of parts I chose based on my limited understanding of gaming PCs and availability of the parts on Amazon India. 'Compatibility Check' showed 'No issues/incompatibilities found'. So, I assume this configuration would work, at least on paper.
I would love to hear from you all if I can further improve this list without going beyond $1000 (please note that parts in India are slightly expensive compared to the US/UK).
(https://in.pcpartpicker.com/guide/vKRscf/entry-level-gaming-build-1)

The CPU cooler is not necessary, as all 'non-k' CPUs come with one included.

As far as RAM goes, just go for the cheapest possible, as it doesn't make a noticeable difference.

If you're trying to save money, you can go for a Pentium G4560 CPU and a B250 mobo (like in the above build). Otherwise, if you're looking for more power, you may consider a i5-6500 cpu + B150/H170 mobo or an i5-7500 cpu + B250/H270 mobo

Also, for the mobo, getting the cheapest option (within the correct chipset) works just fine. So if you're getting a i3-6100, the cheapest B150/H170 should work. If you go 7th gen (i5-7500/i3-7100), the cheapest B250/H270 would work.

For the GPU, if you can go for a Radeon RX 470, it's usually a little more expensive, but it's a LOT more powerful

Why is it being changed so much it was different yesterday and the day before can you please tell me why, i bought most of the parts from yesterday will they still work with the build???? First time for me and i don't understand..

Hello, I am totally new to the website, and wanted to know if this would be suitable for my gaming needs. I want to play games like CSGO, skyrim, just cause 3, dragons dogma, and a few more rpg style games. Would this build be enough for that?

I have never built a pc and am completely new to everything, but am trying to make my first one.

I'm not trying to play the latest games on ultra, and am not a graphics fanatic, so medium settings are fine for me too.

You could also try a GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 ti instead of say the GTX 1060 3GB. It's a 4GB card and can run most AAA titles pretty well. Plus it is typically priced somewhere around $100. It's great little piece of hardware that can handle quite a lot.

I personally don't know why on most if not all build guides (budget builds, or enthusiast builds) all include an SSD, I get it it's fast, but its it worth the extra money? I only have a high capacity HDD and I'm perfectly fine with it, in fact I only see the option to go into the BIOS for a brief second, and then im booted into windows, for that extra money from getting rid of the SSD you could get a better GPU, or CPU. A hard drive is not going to kill you to wait the extra 15 seconds or so in games, but like I said, almost, if not all budget build guides include an SSD, and it's not like you can't upgrade to an SSD later on, so make it have a very good price to performance ratio, if you took out the SSD you would be at about $469.74, and for that you can get an RX 480 and still be under the price of this, and yes I know in the description of this build guide it says "Everyone's needs are different, so feel free to increase capacities or remove a drive to fit yours." but make it slightly more appealing to the very "low budget gamer" who wants the best performance for the lowest cost, because an SSD will more than likely not improve your millions of frames in CSGO (that was a hyperbole.)

And this is NOT a hate comment im just giving my educated opinion based off of what I experience and what I see on PCPP, and this is also not hating on ThoughtA, because he's a pretty cool guy tbh

Heya, your opinion is completely valid! One thing you are missing is that when you have an SSD, everything stored on it will be much snappier and more responsive. That may not matter to everyone, but I find it to be far and away the most important benefit - certainly more important than boot times and load times.

Thanks for they reply, and I do understand what you are saying, but as far as I know that applies to loading times, and maybe in-game menus, like in BeamNG.Drive the menus load a little slow, maybe 4 seconds, so I guess an SSD would benefit in that aspect as well.

Hi! I'm fairly new to this and I have almost no idea what I'm doing and I would like some help and I was wondering if this would be enough to run games like Overwatch, Fallout, and other games such as those? Also I don't really have that much money so I'm looking for the cheapest but best model I can find! Thanks sorry for the trouble

Hey guys, I'm planning on building a PC this summer (finally!) I have been reading for a few months about certain parts and what would fit well with my budget. I have a budget of $700. I'm looking for a solid 1080p 60fps capable PC, but I would also like to have a decent 1440p gaming experience.

I'm looking for people to send me a build that would include the RX 480, 16GB RAM, and at least 1TB of storage. If $700 is too little for one or more of those parts than a suggested downgrade would be appreciated. Thank you!

Totally agree, an earlier build had the 1050 Ti, and the overwhelming complain is that the 470 is only a little bit extra, but at least 1.5 x as powerful. The 1050 Ti is more for 300w psu OEM PC's that you just want to slap a card in and game with.

You'd honestly prefer that someone buy a board that requires BIOS update for the chosen CPU, have it not boot, and then spend X amount of time trying to troubleshoot who-knows-what, potentially sending back a bunch of components at their own expense, costing them both money and time spent actually using their new machine, all in the name of a learning experience? That's a poor attitude, IMO.